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tv   The Last Word  MSNBC  August 9, 2013 1:00am-2:00am EDT

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polics. it is time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell, have a great night. so guess who is telling us to calm down tonight? the russian sports minister. the same guy who has already threatened olympic athletes
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about engaging in "homosexual propaganda." >> the story that has just shocked me and i'm surprised it is not bigger. >> russia's gay laws ahead of the olympics? >> is russia literally rounding up homosexuals? >> yes, they crack down on gay rights. >> it is our opposition. >> to me, this is germany in 1933. >> a few even calling for a boycott of the olympics. >> we must get it out of russia. >> suddenly, a rising concern. >> the international olympic committee has dragged its feet. >> he is suddenly going to be put in a very negative light. >> they are holding 14 town hall meetings. at issue is whether republicans force a government shut down. >> republicans in congress can stop obama care. >> you will not fund obama care? >> they simply refuse to fund it. >> funding obama care is a huge mistake. >> the hard right is going to take over the republican party
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in 2016. and the nomination is going to rand paul. >> i don't think that is happening. >> you watch, this is what i do for a living. >> senator paul is in the middle of a tour in kentucky. >> over, i declared a truce. >> there is no love lost between the united states and russia. >> it is town hall season again. >> i think rand paul has a problem. >> this is going to be a long, hot august. >> president obama's meeting with greece's prime minister was over shadowed today by reporter's questions about russia. instead of answering those questions, the president announced he will be having a press conference tomorrow. russia's sport minister had two words today for critics of russia's new anti-gay laws. calm down. that is what he said. speaking at a news conference
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before the opening of the track and field world championships in moscow, he said the athletes can come and compete, rest assured that all the athletes and all the sports organizations should be relaxed. all the rights will be protected. he insisted that beyond the law, russia has "a constitution that guarantees to all citizens rights for the private life and privacy." but russian sports minister also insisted that athletes would "have to respect the laws of the country." this is the same guy who last week said the laws would be enforced during the olympic games in february. playwright and actor harvey fairstein came on the show and said that thousands have called for boycotts of the olympics. or have the ioc move the olympics, as george takei pointed out.
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they said that the olympics in vancouver could easily handle the next olympics. they are in a unique position to lead in the fight. there is virtually no other industry that can make a greater impact than ours in 2012, annual box office returns for the top 50 films in russia topped $900 million. nearly every one of those movies is a product of hollywood. our business matters to russia. our voices are heard in russia. and the combination of these avenues of influence can absolutely help end these dark days there. because the truth is the other thing that will soon be noted by putin and lgbt russians alike is our industry's silence and apathy. and lgbt russians living in fear
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and putting their lives on the line deserve better than our inaction and silence. joining me now for a last word exclusive, dustin lance black and stewart milk. nephew of harvey milk. lance, i think i know what the russians are planning here. their attitude is of course we won't bother the olympic athletes. they can do whatever they want, they can hold hands, because we're just going to let them come and go with no interference. these laws we're saving for our gay people. >> maybe, let's be clear, what they're doing here is creating an atmosphere of fear, with the vague language that the law was written with. we know that gay athletes can't hold hands or be public about who they are. but it is noted they are going out in the streets to attack the gay russians. they are luring young people out of their homes, via the internet, and luring them out and beating them. torturing them.
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>> making videos. >> making videos of them, putting them out on the internet. >> showing the videos, saying look, we found another gay person and they feel they have done something good. >> what the government is doing by creating this sort of law is creating fear. what does it create? the closet, it creates silence, silence for gay and lesbian people has always equalled death. we saw it with ronald reagan, for years with his silence in the aids crisis. that is what they're doing, trying to beat these people down. let me be clear. i think this has less to do in truth about gay and lesbian people, and more to do about vladimir putin, who is suffering because his country is in economic chaos. and he is using the gay and lesbian people as a distraction. >> stewart milk, the laws refer to gay propaganda, the
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propaganda being any positive reference to or depiction of gay or lesbian people in any way, especially within ear shot of children. >> lawrence, this is what we're seeing not just in russia, but throughout eastern europe. you know, i just got back from the baltic states. from the back yard of moscow. and we've seen these laws come up for votes. and even european union nations, at the heart, these laws reflect some of the societal attitudes that we have been working on. we have been working on the ground for half a decade in eastern europe. we've made progress. but we keep seeing the same -- what lance just referred to, the same silence, when the nobel prize winner, founder of the solidarity movement, when he said that lgbt people should not serve in the parliament, and if they do they should serve behind a wall because they're not equal
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citizens. this, from a nobel prize winner in poland, from russia's back yard, this is the type of right-wing reactionary language we have been hearing. and like lance said, these words, not just the laws but these words can be death to young people. because it doesn't embolden lgbt people, we see this national neo-nazi movement proliferating throughout the region. and there are things we've done in nations such as hungary, where we're seeing some progress. and people should realize, the one good thing that has come out of this and what i feel so proud about is that the american lgbt community and our allies have spoken out and said this is outrageous. and this must stop. and i think people need to realize it is not just russia,
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it is the ukraine, the baltic nations, it is a movement throughout the nations there and we need to influence and listen. >> let's listen to what jay carney said today. >> what do you say to those who say there should be a boycott over the olympics? >> i would refer you to the president's remarks, which clearly stated his views and our position and our expectations that it is in russia's interest to ensure that the olympics are a success. >> this is a basic human rights issue, a pretty clear -- >> i think i have answered the question. the president answered it on television. the olympics are not for a while. i think that our view is clear. and you know, we certainly expect the host of any olympics to ensure that they are a success, and that includes
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ensuring that delegations and athletes are all treated appropriately and with respect. >> lance, that is what i'm afraid the focus of -- ends up being on. are the athletes being treated with respect? and are they living without the oppression of these laws for the weeks that they're in russia? but the problem exists before they get there and after they get there in a much more serious fashion. >> absolutely. and you know i feel like right now the thing that needs to be done is that those of us who have voices that can be heard, we have to make them heard. chad griffin called for the movie studios and nbc to make a statement. >> i happen to have one for you. the one move studio that has something to say just happens to own the rights to the studios. here is nbc universal statement, nbc universal strongly supports the rights of all people.
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the spirit of the olympic games is about freeing people in the olympic celebration and it is our hope is that the spirit will prevail. >> it is not left up to hope. when you televise the olympics, let's just take the opening ceremonies, they're commercials for the host country. what is nbc going to do? glorify the country, or will it say they're going back in time to criminalize a certain group of people just for who they are and how god made them. torturing them into silence, causing blood to be spilled in the streets and young people to be tortured. and the videos of torture released on line. that is the truth of what happened. and to get a profit off the olympics you better tell the truth about the host country. >> well, i think nbc universal
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heard you tonight, not just because you're saying it in one of their buildings in hollywood, but this is clearly not going away. it will be a part of the conversation tomorrow. dustin lance black, and stewart milk, thank you very much for joining us tonight. coming up, the bravest prediction of the year. chris matthews actually says that rand paul will be the next republican presidential nominee. now, that is very brave because not a lot of people agree with him. i'll decide if i do later. alex wagner and steve kornacki will be my next guests to talk about the tea party followers. i just may have to ask them what they think of chris matthew's prediction. hanging out with m. i have a great fit with my dentures. i love kiwis. i've always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. super poligrip free -- it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. even well-fitting dentures let in food particles. super poligrip is zinc free.
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30% of americans do not have friends who are of a race different from their own, according to a new reuters' poll. the poll found about 40% of white americans don't have
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friends who are not white. 20% of nonwhite americans do not have white friends. pacific coast areas have the highest numbers of diverse social circles, and people have the least diverse friendship groups in the south. up next, alex wagner and steve kornacki. being streamed. a quarter million tweeters are tweeting. and 900 million dollars are changing hands online. that's why hp built a new kind of server. one that's 80% smaller. uses 89% less energy. and costs 77% less. it's called hp moonshot. and it's giving the internet the room it needs to grow. this&is gonna be big. hp moonshot. it's time to build a better enterprise. together. inside the only 3 chamber laundry detergent. ♪ now, here you go, let it go ♪ ooh ♪ 'cause it's a bright light stain fighting, cleaning, and brightening... in tide pods.
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pop in. stand out. republicans who stoked tea party outrage at town halls four years ago now find themselves in the situation of having to explain governing to the anti-government crowd. here is republican congressman robert pittinger at a town hall in north carolina. >> real quick, easy question, this is what the tea party wants to know. will you vote to defund obama care? yes or no. [ cheers and applause ] >> i want yes or no.
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>> no. >> if you guys -- if you guys -- if every republican votes against it, it does not get funded. that is a fact. >> no, sir -- >> when you make a stand, you have to get back on board. >> i thought -- if you think harry reid is going to pass -- >> it doesn't matter. >> we need to show the american people we stand for conservative values. and they -- then we can get our country back. >> and here is republican congressman aaron shock at a town hall meeting in illinois. >> if you're going to take a hostage, you have to be willing to shoot, right? because at the end of the day if you're not willing to kill the hostage -- >> that is okay. kill it. >> so what i would say is when i look down the road and i say if i'm going to say i'm going to --
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if it doesn't stop the money, i have to be betting on the fact the president is going to eventually repeal his own bill. i'm not convinced that after a month of the government being shut down, when our senior citizens don't get their medicaid/medicare social security and the troops don't get paid, that my position would be a sustainable position. you would have to disband the military. you would have no money for education, roads, bridges or anything. so we -- >> we can end all that if we just get rid of obama care. one law. >> i'm just asking you to follow this. because it is a lot easier to do it at home. i watch the same stations you watch and see my colleagues up there beat their chest, saying it is time to take a stand, now or never. we have to hold people accountable. but let's look at the facts. >> mitch mcconnell is facing similar questions from his republican challenger.
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>> we hear a lot of empty rhetoric from mitch mcconnell about ending obama care. stop talking about it and start voting in the u.s. senate to kill it. be a man, stand up and put your money where your mouth is. >> joining me now, msnbc's alex wagner and steve kornacki. alex, i have to say i have never seen a more well-deserved political predicament. >> this is what happens after you demagogue an issue and tell americans this is what is happening forever. this is what happens when you sew the seeds of terror. it is shocking to me, particularly the right flank of the house americans, never
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minding the fact, by the way, that you can't actually de-fund obama care through continuing resolution, it is mandatory funding, not discretionary funding, but logic has been lost. >> steve, reasoning with voters is a long-term issue. you can't just start to do it today after not doing it for years. and when you actually saw them at the point of being willing, the audience is being absolutely willing to not pay the troops, and in the words of aaron schock, disband the army, the military, the product of what has been going on in the house of representatives for years. >> it is the part of what has been going on in the house, going on in the area since barack obama has been voted in. the republican strategy from that moment on was absolutely reflexive, unyielding
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opposition. if that is your basic approach, if obama is for it, we're against it. if he enacts it, we'll repeal it. if that is your basic approach to government there is no let-up point. no point where you can go back to your constituents. and say okay, now we have to take a step back. the funding of this might be at stake. there is still an incredible appetite on the right for the absolutists, saying no, do whatever you need to do to take it, to get this horrible, terrible thing off the books. there is no let-up point. >> and alex, we saw them use this same energy to win back the house of representatives in the congressional election. and they have -- hopes of gaining seats in this election. they don't have that big a margin to begin with. but you can't see coming out of those town hall meetings some great surge of tea party
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political energy going to the polls for the congressional election if it isn't to repeal obama care. >> right, well i think a couple of things, first, everybody talks about the 2010 mid-terms. but this issue was litigated pretty effectively in the 2012 elections. we just had an election, guess who won? the guy whose name is at the beginning of obama care. there is that little detail. but i think there is much more of a ground game from the left in terms of the mid-terms in 2014. there is a real sense they lost out. the president said he was schalacked in 2010, but in terms of state legislature and congress being a real sticking point for his agenda on a host of other issues, there is a sense that democrats need to be far more aggressive in 2014, which doesn't bode well for the republicans, aside from this inter-party split. >> okay, i think we can all agree that the bravest among us here at msnbc, is the dean of
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the delegation, he has issued it at the beginning of the year because it is so far advanced. the idea that rand paul absolutely will be the next republican nominee for president. alex wagner, what do you think of your pal chris matthew's prediction? >> i would never malign the national treasures of chris matthews, i would say this. i think he knows a ton about national politics. but i don't think that anybody can agree what happens in the politics. i think it is likely that rand paul will be the choice, but you look at the fact he wants to block/grand medicaid, that is not a good position to be in if you want to be president of the united states. we'll see. >> steve kornacki, is chris
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hayes -- why am i saying that? chris matthews, not the junior, the senior, is chris matthews right? >> i predict he won't predict rand paul in the near future. i'll give chris matthews credit. it is the number one principle if you bet on the horse race, you don't go for the favorite. you go to the long shot, the big payoff. so maybe he is going for the long shot here. so i give him credit here on that. the problem with rand paul, i see a few problems, alex points to the degree that the elections enter into the primaries, i think there will be an over-crowded field on the right. you have ted cruz, rand paul, scott walker. it is a long way of saying i put my money on chris christie, but there is not going to be a payoff there.
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>> all right, i'm going to take all of that under advisement and review my view later in the show. i got to think about it a little bit more. alex wagner, host of "now" and steve kornacki, thank you both for joining me. >> thank you, lawrence. coming up, on this night in history, the president of the united states resigned from office. you will get to see him do it one more time in the rewrite, and see why he was the worst president in history. hero: if you had a chance to go anywhere in the world, but you had to leave right now, would you go? man: 'oh i can't go tonight' woman: 'i can't.' hero : that's what expedia asked me. host: book the flight but you have to go right now. hero: (laughs) and i just go? this is for real right? this is for real? i always said one day i'd go to china, just never thought it'd be today. anncr: we're giving away a trip every day. download the expedia app and your next trip could be on us. expedia, find yours.
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so i predict the hard right is going to take over the republican party in 2016. and the nomination is going to rand paul. you watch. this is what i do for a living. >> in the spotlight tonight, the bravest prediction of the year on who will be the republican presidential nominee in 2016. one way you know a prediction is brave, not a lot of people agree with it. >> i do too, and i don't think that is happening. >> and then, there is the no small matter of chris christie possibly standing in the way of rand paul and anyone else who is trying to get the republican presidential nomination. the run-in didn't go so well, when rand paul surrendered to chris christie, and offered to kiss and make up, an offer that christie dismissed. and then there was an interview with rand paul on tuesday showing how incapable he is of holding his own in the back and forth of a presidential
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campaign. john harwood asked him about his racist former aide, who goes by the name of the southern avenger. >> well, why don't you talk about rand paul, i'm the one doing the interview. you can go ahead and beat up the ex-employee of mine, why don't we talk about what we're doing about the party, and then we can have an intelligent discussion. >> well, i am. i want to talk about a book you helped write. >> well, you're not, why don't we talk about what libertarian republican means and what it would do for the party. >> joining me now, washington post reporter dan balz, author of the book, "collision 2012" and the author of future elections in american. it is not going to get much better for rand paul if he is not going to talk about what it means for the republican party.
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does he talk about ending all aid of any kind, the posturing that republicans have held for years and other elements of the party. and so you see him there kind of unable to deal with john harwood's questions and asking to go in the direction that i think personally will not help him either. >> well, the problem that he has got. he certainly has support in the tea party faction, lawrence, and that is not insignificant in the republican party of 2013 and heading toward 2016. but as you point out, there are a lot of views he has which are well out of sort of the mainstream in the republican party. and the longer it goes on with those positions, the harder it will be to consolidate and gain support within the republican party that is capable of winning the nomination. >> well you know what? i have time to think about it. i have time to issue the finding, i don't think rand paul has a chance.
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his father got 8% of the vote with the delegates the last time. rand paul won't do much better if he gets in this thing. and then there is chris christie to deal with. and we saw in this feud if you bet on rand paul with chris christie, so far you lost one round. >> well, that is right. the opening round. although we are so far away from what really will be i suspect, a pretty robust debate with a lot of cast and characters running for the nomination in 2016. there has been so much focus in the past few weeks for obvious reasons on these two politicians. but there are a lot of other republicans who will be out there challenging both of them. and the party has got big decisions and big choices ahead of it. and rand paul represents a piece of that debate as does chris christie. but there are others who
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represent other parts of that debate. and we haven't heard from them. some of them are probably wisely laying low. knowing at this point most ordinary people are not paying much attention to it. this has such a long way to run. we know the party is heading for a serious debate as it heads for the run in 2016. >> i have had no closer look at chris christie than what you offer in the book looking back at that last campaign. through his interview with you where he seemed to be very open, is it your sense based on what you have seen him do so far and how he handled himself both in the way he handled his involvement in the romney campaign. that that was as much as anything else practice for when his turn would come. >> well, i think the experience that he went through, which is recounted in the book of people urging him to run at a time when he didn't really feel he was ready to run a campaign, nonetheless put him in the
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mindset to think about this for a long time. and right now, he is rightly focused on winning re-election and winning with as big a margin as he possibly can. there is not everything he agrees with the republican party on. and so there are questions among some republicans about how authentic or reliable he is as a conservative. but i think one of the messages he wants to send from this election campaign is that he is capable of winning in blue states and will say to the rest of the party if we want to around the presidency we can't simply win the red states, we have to convert some of the states that president obama has won in the last two elections in order to get all the way there. and i think that is the step by step process that he is going through right now. >> the new book is called "collision 2012" dan balz thank you very much for joining me tonight. lawrence, thank you. coming up, the story of how the president on this night, august 8th, was drunk and out of control and crying the night before he resigned. that is in the rewrite. and later, the latest revelation about the nsa's capacity to read e-mails. [ tires screech ]
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never forget where i was days. august 8th. you have heard older people say it about december 7th, never forget where i was when i heard the japanese bombed pearl harbor or when president kennedy was assassinated, or when bobby kennedy was assassinated. and i'll never forget where i was on this day, august 8th, in 1974 at 9:00 p.m., when the worst president in history announced he was resigning. i'll never forget that the awe i felt that the system of checks and balances had actually worked and worked at the highest level. the courts, including the supreme court of the united
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states and the congress had allowed the head of the executive branch to be investigated through normal judicial and congressional processes. and the weight of their evidence against the president was so powerful that he decided in effect, to plead guilty by becoming the first and only president of the united states to resign. the president was revealed to be a criminal, despite his famous "i am not a crook" protestation. and later, the president was revealed to be a racist and an anti-semite that most of us strongly suspected he was. it is all there on his tapes, tape recordings that he knew he was making. on those tapes you hear him talk about what he called "the black thing." meaning african-americans, and saying they were 500 years away of being the equal of white people like him. he said that on tape. and that was not one of the tapes that he conspired with his
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secretary to erase. he also agreed on tape with henry kissinger, his jewish secretary of state, saying "if they put jews in the gas chamber in the soviet union, it is not an american concern. nixon knew it was on tape, but had no reason to erase that one. they imagined nixon and his henchmen having vicious conversations and saying horrible things. but we had no idea their thought experiments could actually include jews being put in gas chambers again. and the united states of america doing absolutely nothing about it this time. if nixon trusted anyone, he trusted henry kissinger, which was as stupid a calculation as he ever made. kissinger was as un-trustworthy a person who ever worked in government.
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they tell the final mistake nixon made with henry kissinger. it was the night before he announced his resignation, he spent time with him. when kissinger returned to his office, the phone rang. it was the president. lawrence egleburger picked up the extension to listen. that was the custom. eagleburger was shocked. the president was slurring his words. he was drunk, out of control. eagleburger could barely make out what he said. he felt ill and hung up. the president had one last request, henry, please don't ever tell anyone that i cried and that i was not strong. there is the drunk president of the united states begging henry kissinger not to tell anyone on a phone line, where kissinger
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always made sure he was already telling someone else, because someone else was always listening. and then kissinger, and eagleburger made sure that their boss's final confidential request was printed word for word in a best-selling book for all the world to see. richard nixon got exactly what he deserved in henry kissinger. and america got what it deserved on this night 39 years ago. the resignation of the worst president in history. for those of you who remember where you were that night, here is another look at that moment in history that we now know occurred. 24 hours after the president of the united states was, according to team kissinger, drunk, out of control and crying. >> good evening, this is the 37th time i have spoken to you
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from this office. where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this nation. each time i have done so to discuss with you some matter that i believe affected the national interest. in all the decisions i have made in my public life i have always tried to do what was best for the nation. throughout the long and difficult period of watergate, i have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the office term to which you have elected me. in the past year, it has become evident to me that i no longer have a strong enough base in congress to justify continuing that effort. as long as there was such a
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base, i felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion. that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process. and a dangerously de-stabilizing precedent for the future. but with the disappearance of that base, i now believe know the constitutional purpose has been served. and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged. i would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved. and my family unanimously urged me to do so. but the interests of the nation must always come before any personal considerations.
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from the discussions i've had with congressional and other leaders, i have concluded that because of the watergate matter, i might not have the support of the congress that i would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the nation will require. i have never been a quitter. to leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. but as president, i must put the interests of america first. america needs a full-time president. and a full-time congress. particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad. to continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of
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both the president and the congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home. therefore, i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. vice president ford will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office. i regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of events that led to this decision. i would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong and some were wrong, they were made in what i believed at the time to be the best interest of the nation. [ school bell rings ] ♪ school's out for summer [ male announcer ] from the last day of school, back to the first.
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the founder of amazon.com told reporters today that his reported purchase of "the washington post" was a gigantic mix-up, explaining he clicked on it by mistake, i guess i was just browsing on their website and not paying attention to what i was doing, he said. no way did i intend to buy anything. those words were written in "the new yorker" by andy borowitz, but the chinese news agency
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didn't know it was a joke, that he was a comedy writer. so they reported the amazon founder said the acquisition of the post was because of an unintentional mouse click. now, i have known andy since college, and i'm telling you now that was his most effective joke ever. up next, the most effective times report on how the nsa reads your e-mails. chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for boat insurance. geico, see how much you could save.
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you don't have a domestic spying perhaps. what we do have are some mechanisms where we can track a phone number or an e-mail address that we know is connected to some sort of terrorist threat. >> that was the president tuesday on "the tonight show" with jay leno. today, the lead story of the new
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york times begins the national security agency is searching the context of vast amounts of e-mail communications into and out of the country, hunting people mentioning information about foreigners. the nsa is not just intercepting the communication of americans, but targeting overseas communications that americans have acknowledged. it is also casting a far wider net for people who cite information linked to the foreigners, like a little used e-mail address according to a senior official. white house press secretary jay carney was asked about "the times" report today. >> if joe schmo from cocomo wants to know if an e-mail is being read, what will you say? >> it is not being read. the information targeted has to do with terrorist threats or potential terrorist threats emanating from foreign personnel.
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there are places as i just described and i am sure that odi and nsa can explain to you in greater detail that ensure that the information is minimized and dealt with appropriately. >> joining me now is the author of the article today, charlie savage. is joe schmo one of the guys the nsa is infusing to worry about the e-mail? i saw this piece i was reading, saying haven't i read this before? some of this we have known, haven't we? >> well, we certainly have known that the nsa oversees a collection of a vast amount of internet voice communication and uses the internet to hunt through them. and we know that here on
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domestic soil where the constitution applies and so forth it does sometimes under the fiza amendment act, target overseas collections. and if america is in direct contact with that foreign target that means the american's communication will be taken without a warrant, as well. so what is different about this, this is the searching of the content of americans of at least their cross-border communications, and it is happening on u.s. soil without warrants. >> you have real technical detail on how they do it, it is kind of fascinating. they in effect make a kind of clone of the information, and according to the report, hold it briefly, maybe minutes or less. and if they don't find the things they're looking for that
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stuff just gets released. and they don't hold onto it. >> that is my understanding of the system. they have what they call strong selectors, which are essentially key words which would be identifiers that suggest that someone knows about one of their foreign targets. maybe it is some private phone number used by vladimir putin or some address of a terrorism suspect in pakistan or something like that, that you would presumably only know if you were connected to that person in some way. and they have a large number, i don't know how many of these indicators. so they make a copy of all the cross-border traffic, both the collection of that content and then the system automatically searched the information and pulls out one of the matches for the indicators for a human to read later on without a warrant. and if it doesn't match then the system deletes very quickly the rest of the communications. >> and so as you report, according to this information, which is hard to confirm but it is their description of how it
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works, they don't have any retrospective ability. they can't decide a week later or day later or even hours later, okay, let's go look for this because they were not holding on to it anymore? >> that is correct, some of the discrepancies were about vast data bases that had the ability to look back in time when somebody becomes suspicious later on. we know that the phone meta data base which is keeping logs of phone calls of everybody in the united states, which came out in june. that was for five years. we know that the edward snowden leaks to the government show that the internet content browsing of people overseas is held for three days in sort of a rolling buffer, and it is too much volume, then they make room for it on the hard drive. this becomes the right away searching, you only are searching going forward for what you already have gathered. >> charlie savage, thank you for joining us with your latest report. >> thank you.

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